Never Discount the X Factor

In his letter last Saturday, William Michael complained about the inclusion of X Games coverage in the sports pages: “We don’t care about pretend sports, wannabe sports, or hobby interests.”

Speak for yourself, William. I, for one, get an electric thrill when I read about a guy earning his winning score in the skateboard vert with a clean run featuring a frontside gaytwist heelflip, a backside tailslide over the overt pocket, and a nollie flip indy.

Try finding that kind of excitement in a Dodger baseball story, my friend! Rad!

Joel Rapp

Los Angeles

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In response to William Michael’s letter that he’d rather read about the struggling Dodgers on the Sports front page instead of X Games stories, all I can say is, speak for yourself, dude.

In essence, instead of continually reading about the incredible and creative ways the Dodgers can lose games on the front page all the time, a little fresh air on some other topics is justified and won’t hurt for a day or so. As much as the Blue Crew are playing hot and cold like fluctuating temperatures, they’re lucky they aren’t banished to the last page of the California section or the Weather page.

Get over it. Sports are sports. We have all summer/autumn to read about baseball. Injecting a little newness now and then won’t hurt things.

It’s like eating only meat every day. Sure, filet mignon is tasty, but to eat that every day without eating anything else, you will get tired of it. That’s why we all eat a little from each food group for each meal; just like The Times adds a little baseball, football, basketball or whatever other topical sport for its front page coverage.

Bon appetit!

Brian M. Green

Long Beach